It's All The Rage!!!

Rating: 9/10 (26 October 2011)

I have been a fan of Danny Boyle's work for a number of years now. He always finds a way of merging intuitive camera-work with a compelling story. When I learned he made a zombie movie, how could I turn it down? At first, when I started watching 28 DAYS LATER, I thought it was going to be one more standard-issue zombie film. But right after the chilling opening scene, I was joyously thrilled and confounded by his new breed of zombies. Though not entirely original, RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD beat Boyle to it some 15 years earlier, his movie definitely redefined our old notion of the slow-moving, flesh-crazed, mainly-stupid zombie. Instead, we're presented with living humans infected by Rage, a rabies-like virus, that causes them to turn murderous. So onwards they come, running and howling like banshees. Actually, the zombies are kept to a minimum as instead we witness the horror and drama unfold as a handful of non-infected persons learn to survive in a post-apocalyptic London. And along the way, the film has some poignant existential messages to leave with us. To be certain, the film is chilling and uncomfortably realistic. In fact if there were some sort of real zombie epidemic, a Rage-type virus would probably be the culprit. But aside from that, look at what this film managed to do. It inspired a whole slew of fast-moving zombie movies including DAWN OF THE DEAD (the remake), REC, QUARANTINE (its American remake), BERLIN ZOMBIE (AKA: RAMMBOCK), and the upcoming WORLD WAR Z, to name a few. So please gentle viewer, if you haven't already, put this on your must-see list!!!